Volkskunde Museum

Salzburg folk culture with a view

From the Hellbrunner Park the way leads up through the forest to the Hellbrunner Berg. The Monatsschlössl stands there, with a view of the Festung Hohensalzburg and of the park and the palace of Hellbrunn. It was built in 1615 as a hunting lodge for Prince-Archbishop Markus Sittikus. Since 1924 the Salzburg Museum has shown a small but informative folklore collection here.

Domestic culture and folk devotion

Richly painted rustic display furniture from the Leyrerhof in Gries im Pinzgau shows the transition from rococo to Empire style in Salzburg farmhouse furniture. The so-called Pinzgauer Blankholzmöbel of the 18th century have a style of their own within Central Europe and a high quality. Convent work, the iconographically remarkable oil painting of the Holy Trinity, the large Rauriser Lenten crib, reverse glass paintings, religious protective objects and remedies and the death boards typical of Salzburg show the spiritual and religious life of the earlier population.

Customs

Figures in traditional dress from the individual regions of the province of Salzburg stand in the so-called Great Hall on the second floor of the folklore museum. There the visitor also becomes acquainted with the most important customs of the province: the Prangstangentragen in the Lungau, the Krampuslaufen, the Trestern in the Pinzgau and the Glöcklerlaufen in the Flachgau. Their size alone makes the figures of the Lungauer Samson with his dwarf companions and the Pongauer Schönperchten with their distinctive headdress stand out. That headdress consists of two boards placed one above the other or of a pointed hood, entirely covered with flowers or ornaments. They reach more than two metres in height and up to 45 kilograms in weight.

Exhibition Edelweiß forever from 18 April 2026

As early as the first half of the 20th century, deliberate work was done on the tourist image of Salzburg, with landscape, music and traditional dress as the main themes. After 1945 advertising built on this and Salzburg became a sought-after film location, among other things for The Sound of Music. The exhibition Edelweiß forever in the Monatsschlössl shows how landscape, music and traditional dress were conveyed in the film, by the von Trapp family and in the Salzburg of the 1950s and 1960s.